If you’ve recently changed your Facebook status to “engaged,” congratulations! We hope you have a florist in mind, but if not, we know a great one!

We absolutely love wedding flowers! For us, working with couples to set the tone for their big day is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. We think you’ll enjoy it too, but there are some important decisions to be made – that’s why it’s important that you and your florist are on the same page.

Pinterest is a fantastic resource for wedding inspiration, but people often make several key mistakes because it’s so easy to get overwhelmed with the vast quantity of pictures they find online. In order to make your wedding flower experience as smooth as possible, we identified a few common Pinterest pitfalls that you’ll want to avoid.

Falling in love with everything

You might be starting off on the wrong foot by arriving at your consultation and showing the florist 3,000 wedding pins you like. In years past, most brides only had pictures of weddings from people they knew, or from a few bridal magazines.

Today, thanks to social media, we’re inundated with millions of professional wedding photographs and many of them make the flowers look amazing in all sorts of different settings. In reality, the same flowers that look picture-perfect in a photo of a beach wedding could look out of place if your wedding is in a church or a rustic rural venue.

A good strategy is having an idea or theme in mind and then showing a handful of favorites to your florist and letting them work their magic. They typically have a great eye for design and once you’re on the same page, it’s much easier to work out the details.

Not having an accurate budget

At this stage of wedding planning you should, at least, have a “ballpark” idea of how much of your wedding budget is allotted for decorations and flowers. It’s important to be realistic and accurate as possible to avoid major changes later on.

There are some incredibly cool ideas to be found on Pinterest, but it may not be feasible to include everything you want and still remain within your budget. Having an accurate budget goes a long way towards minimizing the stress of having to cut details that you really want.

Wedding florists are experts in making the venue as beautiful as possible, but they need to have a good idea of your budget in order to start their planning. In many cases, they’ve worked with your particular venue in the past, so they know what works and what doesn’t. They should be able to give you options, offer you alternatives, or give you advice on how to make the most of your allocated budget.

Not being flexible or having unreal expectations

Pinterest is definitely a welcome addition to the wedding industry, and we certainly recommend that anyone planning a wedding use Pinterest during the initial stages to gather ideas, but remember that it should be thought of as a place for inspiration and not duplication.

Your wedding to be unique; it should tell your story and reflect your style and personalities without being a carbon copy of someone else’s ideas. Relying on Pinterest to plan every last detail will only lead to disappointment because there are just too many variables in play.

Many weddings are big productions that require multiple vendors working in unison to make sure everything comes together without a hitch. Often times couples dream big initially but are forced to sacrifice or cut back on certain aspects of their big day. Unless you have an unlimited budget (wouldn’t that be nice?) you might have to temper your expectations or modify some details. Don’t worry, it happens to almost everyone, and that’s why you hire experts.

Chances are, your wedding won’t look exactly like one you saw on Pinterest – but that’s a good thing. You never know; a year or two from now anxious couples may be looking at your wedding photos for inspiration of their own. The important thing is to make the day yours!

We know most people don’t have much experience when it comes to wedding flowers – it’s just not something you do every day – that’s why our goal is to make your wedding look fantastic! Give us a call at 317-353-9161 and we’ll help walk you through the process and set up a consultation.